Around 50b afghanis saved with NPA efforts: CEO

KABUL (Pajhwok): Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Abdullah Abdullah on Thursday said procurement in the past had many problems, but reforms helped boost domestic productions and saved around 50 billion afghanis.

Addressing a conference titled ‘national procurement conference for the public,’ Dr. Abdullah said that reforms in procurement and giving domestic productions priority in the procurement processes had been effective in improving domestic products and the private sector.

Pointing to more than 3,300 contracts worth 500 billion afghanis reviewed by the National Procurement Authority (NPA), Abdullah said around 50 billion afghanis had been saved in contracts as a result of the NPA and National Procurement Commission (NPC) efforts.

The procurement process in the past had been facing many problems including latency in projects, loss of resources, lack of capacity for procurement in departments and lack of transparency, but reforms enabled the NPA to resolve all these problems, the CEO said.

“Development projects were promised with people in the past when financial resources were also available, but most of the projects then had to be delayed due to wrong method of contracts and lack of transparency,” Abdullah recalled.

He added huge efforts had been made to achieve transparency, development and improve domestic products and the private sector.

A number of companies that lacked transparency were added to the black list, he said. The CEO said the performance of NPA had also been acknowledged by international institutes.

Hamayon Qayumi, acting finance minister, told the conference that the procurement process had significantly improved over the last four years.

He said reforms in the procurement process and support to the private sector helped 20 types domestic products sustain self-sufficiency.

Elham Omar Hottaki, general head of NPA, said national interest and transparency was held supreme in awarding contracts.

He said bold steps were taken against corruption and efforts were currently underway to turn to e-procurement.